A great deal has been written about Plácido Domingo’s
transformation from tenor to baritone, and there have been detractors as
well as admirers. The timbre is still that of a dramatic tenor, but he
started as a baritone and throughout his career has always been described as
‘baritonal’. He was no King of the High C as one of his
illustrious colleagues was.

Most of the arias on this disc also have a rather high tessitura and
a tenoral brightness at the top is not unwelcome in that case. So his timbre
doesn’t disturb me. On the contrary one has to marvel at the
youthfulness and the freshness of his voice, considering that he has spent
more than 45 years in the limelight at all the big opera houses in more than
140 roles, including Otello and several Wagner heroes. In the light of this
it is sensational that he has retained so many of those qualities that
endeared him to audiences and critics alike: the brilliance, the
expressivity and the sheer beauty of the voice. There are no serious signs
of deterioration, his vibrato is still fully controlled, he is even more
willing to sing softly than he was in his tenor days. His pianissimo at the
end of the Provence aria is magical. His Boccanegra is possibly even better
than when I heard him in the role at the Met in early 2010. Then initially I
thought that the tone was a bit grey. Here he also has excellent support
from some co-singers, not least the lovely Angel Blue as Amelia.
Carlo’s aria from Ernani suits him to perfection, and he is
also very good in Luna’s aria and the following cabaletta.

I have complete recordings with him in the tenor roles from most of
these operas, the earliest studio recording was Il trovatore for RCA
in 1969. Here, many years later, he takes on Count Luna so successfully. He
recorded the title role in Don Carlo in 1970 and now his rendition of
Posa’s death is perhaps the most touching scene of all, while Machado
as Don Carlo is uncannily sound-alike to Domingo’s younger self.
Competition is formidable from true baritones in all these roles and I could
mention singers like Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto, Piero Cappuccilli as Macbeth,
Renato Bruson as Germont - singers whose careers have coincided with
Domingo’s but it isn’t necessary to make those comparisons.
Domingo as Rigoletto, as Macbeth and as Germont is fully valid in his own
right. His admirers, eager to know if this disc is any good, can sleep well
tonight and go out and buy the disc and spend many hours in Domingo’s
company with total confidence. Production values are high and there are
several role photos from various productions.